


Another Pitch

by BaileyBooks



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 04:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17738621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaileyBooks/pseuds/BaileyBooks
Summary: The conversation between Tim and Becky during 4x06 goes a little differently causing a chain of events that will change Lyla and Tim's life forever.





	Another Pitch

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I know I am getting into the FNL fandom a few years late but here I am. I absolutely fell in love with Tim Riggins and Lyla Garrity, and they have quickly become one of my OTP's. I hate how the showrunners ended things with them and what they did to Tim's character after it, so I decided to write this short one shot + epilogue to make things a whole lot better. I hope y'all enjoy!

His heart breaks the minute the bus pulls away. Gone is his future. Gone is the love of his life. Gone is Lyla Garrity. A big part of him wants to chase after her. Pull the bus over and confess everything to her. How much he loves her. How much she means to him. But then there’s the other part. The part that knows Lyla Garrity deserves so much more then Dillion, Texas. That deserves more than him. That's the part that forces him into his truck and drives in the opposite direction. He stops at the gas station before making his way back to the trailer. He needs beer. A lot it. When he pulls into the driveway he sees Becky sitting on the front porch, like she’s waiting for him. Tim knows how Becky feels for him, but he can’t do anything about that. Besides the fact that he slept with her mom and lives on her property, she's sixteen and still in high school. It would be wrong to do anything with her. Yet, he goes and sits down next to her. He’s hoping her talking will take his mind off of Lyla. 

“Where’s Lyla?” Becky asks.

Well, there goes that plan. It takes him a minute to respond, but when he finally does, the only word he can seem to get out is “Gone.” She left him. And he let her go. 

Becky looks at him with sympathy in her eyes. “Was she the love of your life?” 

At first, he doesn’t know how to answer that question. The simple answer is yes. The complicated answer is that he has been in love with Lyla Garrity since freshman year of high school. It pains him to think about it sometimes because of the guilt he feels. The guilt of being in love with, at the time, his best friends girlfriend. The guilt of being in love with another girl even as he was dating Tyra. He decides its best not to answer. But when he looks at Becky, he sees the hope in her eyes. Hope that he’ll say no. Hope that Lyla was just a fling for him and that there’s still a chance that Tim will make a move on her. So he looks her dead in the eye and pushes back the tears he knows will eventually come and says, “Yes”. 

Becky nods, expecting that to be his answer, though still hurt by it. She wants to be immature about it. Get him to realize that she’s standing right in front of him willing. But she can’t seem to do that. Instead, she asks a question that will make Tim owe Becky everything. “Then what are you still doing here?” 

He looks at her confused, not sure how to answer. He doesn’t actually have to though, because Becky isn’t finished. “I know I’m still in high school, and I don’t know much about love. But I do know that when you find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, you don’t let them go. Even if it’s going to be hard. Even if it means sacrificing everything. If I had what you have with Lyla, I would be doing everything I can to make sure that person is in my life.” 

Tim looks down at his feet for a minute, taking in everything Becky just said. He knew that he would never accept Lyla giving up Vanderbilt for him. He knew she deserved everything she wanted in life. So he assumed that would be the end of them. However, he never thought about what life would be like if he followed her. Because honestly, he wouldn’t be giving up anything, not really. Tim thought if the time came, leaving Dillion would be harder than anything he’d have to do. But he realizes now that that is nothing compared to living his life without Lyla Garrity by his side. He quickly jumps up, knocking the chair down. Tim leans over and kisses Becky on the forehead. “Thank you,” he breathes out and then runs into the trailer to gather up everything he owns. He has to go get his girl. 

 

-~-

 

The campus that once used to cause so much excitement in her leaves her feeling more sad and alone. Lyla Garrity does not want to be here. She wants to be laying in bed with Tim, his arms wrapped around her and them softly whispering to each other. Sadly, you don’t always get what you want. She feels the stare of her roommate, Caroline, who’s sitting in the driver's seat next to her. She picked Lyla up from the bus station and the minute Caroline saw her she knew something was up. 

As they pull into the parking garage, Caroline says, finally speaks up, “Lyla, what’s wrong?” 

Lyla plans on answering, but the second she opens her mouth the crying begins and she doesn't know how to stop it. It as if every moment she has ever felt sad come rushing out. Then the sobbing starts and Lyla knows she is done for. She feels Caroline pull her into a hug and begin rubbing her back.

“Honey, what’s wrong? Does it have to do with Tim?” She whispers. Caroline knows all about Tim. The good, the bad and the ugly. She just wasn’t expecting this. 

After a few minutes, Lyla finally begins to calm down and pulls away from Caroline. “Leaving him the first time was pretty damn hard, and I didn’t think it could get any harder. But then we spend these great three days together and it’s like a glimpse into what a real life would be like with him. Waking up next to him, eating dinner with him, sharing a life with him, and then everything got a whole lot harder. 

“The moment I truly decided to go to Vanderbilt I knew that there was nothing stopping me from going. So tell me why, as he and I stood at that bus station, I wanted to throw my things back into his truck and stay with him in Dillon forever. I have never wanted that. Never. Even when I was with Jason I knew we’d leave Dillon once we graduated. But for Tim Riggins, I’m willing to give up everything just to be with him. Why? Why him?” 

Lyla looks at Caroline, who’s wearing a small smile and sad eyes. “I didn’t know you in high school. I never saw you with Jason Street, and I never saw you with Tim, but even I know that Tim Riggins is the love of your life. The way you talk about him, especially right now, points to that one hundred percent. You love him enough to stay in Dillon forever, and he loves you enough to let you go live a life outside of Dillon. Without him.”  
Lyla never thought of Tim as the love of her life, and it seems stupid that she just now realized that he is. Which makes her feel even worse. “Do you think we get more than one soulmate?”

Caroline takes a minute to think. “I think soulmates are a tricky subject, so I have no idea if we have more than one. But what I do know is that if your lucky to find one in this complicated world, and if they truly are your soulmate, you’ll eventually find your way back to each other. It may take years for it to happen, but if they truly are the one for you, you’ll be together when the time is right.” 

Lyla nods sadly. “God, I am sorry for crying all over you and asking you these existential life questions.” 

“If I’m being honest, I sort of envy you. I have never met someone who makes me feel even a sliver of how Tim makes you feel. And I promise you will feel that again, whether it's with Tim or somebody else. Now come on, I say we get a gallon of ice cream and watch the Roman Holiday because that movie always makes me feel better.” Caroline gets out of the car, and Lyla quickly follows. 

After grabbing her suitcase, they walk back to their dorm hall. Lyla keeps trying to pull herself together, and Caroline is now trying to make out a figure in front of her that looks exactly like the Tim Riggins she has seen in Lyla’s photos. She’s still unsure until they get farther down the road and she sees the figure turn towards them and then she knows for sure. “Lyla, look over there.” 

Confused, Lyla looks where Caroline is pointing towards and it’s as if time itself stops. Tim Riggins. Number 33 of Panther Football. The love of her life is standing 20 feet in front of her. She drops her bag and rushes forward, with Tim quickly following in suit. When she reaches him she wraps her arms around his neck and jumps up, wrapping her legs around his torso. His strong arms wrap around her waist, and she feels him kiss her neck. Lyla knows she should be asking him a hundred questions, but right now, all she wants to do hold onto to him a little bit longer. 

After what finally seems like forever, Tim lets her down, but he still keeps his hands around her waist. “What...what are you...what are you doing here?” Lyla finally gets out. 

Tim leans his head forward so that their foreheads are touching. “I’m here to spend the rest of my life with you, Lyla Garrity” Lyla begins to speak, but Tim stops her. He has to get out everything he needs to say. “I have another pitch for you. You. Me. Nashville for the next four years. You study your ass off and get a degree while I get a job close by where I'll work my ass off. Once you graduate I know the jobs offers will be coming in by the hundreds, so wherever you decide to go, whether it be Austin, New York or even Hong Kong, I will be there with you. It’s a simple life, but it can also be a great one.” 

Everything Lyla thought she was going to say flew out the window, and now she can barely summon a response. “I can’t ask you to give up things for me.” 

Tim shakes his head. “The way I see it, I’m not giving anything up. As long as I have you, nothing else matters. As long as I have you, I will be the happiest man alive.”

Tears start to stream down Lyla’s face. “Are you sure?”

Tim snorts at her question. “Lyla Garrity, you are the love of my life, and I am never letting you go again. So, how does my pitch sound to you?” 

This time, Lyla doesn’t need a response, all she has to do is wrap her arms around his neck and push her lips against his. Tim responds aggressively, kissing her as if his life depended on it. For the first time in Tim’s life, he knows he made the right decision, and for the first time in Lyla’s life, she knows it too.

**Author's Note:**

> P.S. the epilogue will be up in the next couple of days.


End file.
